Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

On Wednesday 15th September, Kitcatt Nohr hosted the latest in a series of breakfast events for clients and friends of the agency, at central London members club One Alfred Place.

Waitrose's Marketing Director, Rupert Thomas, and Kitcatt Nohr's Head of Planning, David Yates, spoke about how creativity and innovation have been the driving force behind Waitrose's impressive sales growth.

Rupert Thomas also spoke in more detail about the success of essential Waitrose, the range of own label products offering the quality you’d expect from Waitrose, all at great value prices.

It is estimated that the launch of the essential Waitrose brand contributed £121m of incremental growth in 2009 alone. Waitrose successfully maintained wavering and loyalist customers and simultaneously strengthened their image, sales and profits.

Amongst much public comment and praise for essential Waitrose, The Times summarized it as follows: “The essential Waitrose launch has been instructive for everyone in the grocery market. It has proved how even supposedly upmarket shoppers like a bargain. It has proved how grocery retailers can offer value lines without cannibalizing existing sales. It has shown that, even in a period of declining food inflation, it is actually possible to grow.”

The launch marketing for essential Waitrose was created in collaboration with agencies MCBD, Manning Gottlieb OMD, Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw, Brand Science, Grand Union and John Brown.

Kitcatt Nohr's essential Waitrose "Cupboard" direct marketing campaign was named as one of the public's top ten DM campaigns of 2009 in a Nielsen survey.